Friday, June 29, 2012

I was listening to a podcast on EscapeFromIllustrationIsland.com today with an AD at the NY Times. I was wondering if I could draw something non-kid related. My daughter said I have to make another, happier, version. :)

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Everyone had so much fun with the last warmup exercise, I thought I'd post another. For this warmup, start with this photo of the beach (click on image to enlarge). Create characters based on the shapes you see in the photo.

I brought the image into Photoshop and traced around the shapes but do what ever works for you. You can turn it, flip it, do what ever you want.

I'm sorry, I don't have time to create a post of everyone's creations this week. But feel free to put a link to your site in the comments section. I'll post my characters on Thursday.

Monday, June 18, 2012

At the Icon conference last week I thought it would be fun to hand out frogs instead of business cards. So I folded about 50 little green frogs. I wished I would have folded more because I ran out on Friday.

They look funny before you fold them. Sort of like froggy road kill...

If you want to make some of your own there are directions for them here and here. Wouldn't it be fun to make a whole bunch in two different colors and play checkers with them?

Sunday, June 17, 2012

I got back from Icon7 last night. It was such a great opportunity to recharge my batteries and to see other humans. I met so many great and talented folks. I hope you all keep in touch.

I was so inspired to create something that I got up extra early yesterday morning and created a special Icon7 edition Steve and Wessley comic. I inked it in this morning so you can actually read it this time. Hope you like it. (Click on each page to enlarge.)

Saturday, June 09, 2012

On Thursday I did a warm up exercise that I learned from Kelly Light's Character Design 101 workshop and the 2012 New England SCBWI conference. The exercise was the take a bunch of random shapes and try to form characters based on those shapes. I thought it would be fun to do the exercise again, only this time let my illustrator friends do it along with me. We have all been having so much fun with it. Thanks Kelly! If you want to try it yourself then STOP! Go back to the original post. It's more fun if you don't peek at the other solutions until you've already done the exercise yourself.

I don't know what's better, doing the exercise or seeing what everyone else did. I love seeing what other people came up with! If you happen across this post after 6/8/2012 and still want to join in, post a link to your characters below in the comments section.

Here are the shapes everyone started with...

And (drum roll please) here are the "answers"...

From Russ Cox. They are all awesome, I especially like the squeezy head guy on the bottom left.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

I learned this exercise from a terrific workshop lead by the insanely talented Kelly Light at NE SCBWI. Not only did Kelly run a great workshop - she also baked everyone chocolate chip cookies. You gotta love this girl!

For this exercise, make a grid and draw a random shape in each box, then see if you can make characters out of each one.
I thought it would be fun if two people did this together and they swapped shapes. Or if a group of people all started with the same shapes and see what different characters emerge from the same shapes. If anyone wants to do it, here's another page of shapes to start with. I'll post mine tomorrow. If anyone else wants a go at it, I can post yours too.